DETROIT – A youth football club on Detroit’s east side is doing more than coaching plays — it’s trying to make sure children have enough to eat.
Renaissance City Chargers, a nonprofit organization that has run football and cheer programs for boys and girls in the East Jefferson Avenue neighborhood for two years, states that meals are a vital part of keeping young athletes healthy and engaged.
Executive Director Guye Goodlow says the program serves between 80 and 100 young people and has been distributing meals through a City of Detroit summer food service program.
“This project, right here, it has a lot of kids in it,” Goodlow said. “We want to be the beacon of light that helps illuminate East Jefferson and get these kids to their best selves.”
Most recently, the Renaissance City Chargers received meals through the Summer Food Service Program, with food arranged through Detroit’s A.B. Ford Recreation Center.
The city-distributed meals helped fill a gap for many families, Goodlow said, because for some players “getting healthy meals is not always guaranteed.”
“We want to make sure that these kids are eating, because many times, these meals that they get are the first, last, and only meal that they get every day,” Goodlow said.
Goodlow has been working to continue the program into the school year with after-school meals, but he said the effort has run into bureaucratic hurdles.
“There’s been some complications, some red tape, some hoops, some bureaucracy, in getting it approved. We are trying to figure out how to get it approved,” Goodlow said.
Goodlow said he reached out to a local agency that agreed to sponsor and deliver meals.
That organization requested documentation to finalize the arrangement, including a fire inspection report for the proposed drop-off location at the recreation center.
The Chargers state that they have been unable to obtain a copy of the report from the city to submit to the sponsor.
The city of Detroit said meal services are available at select locations for after-school programs.
According to Crystal Perkins, Director of Detroit’s General Services Department, the city cannot allow third-party vendors to enter a recreation center and serve food.
“We cannot allow a third-party vendor that is not our vendor to come in and serve food at the rec center,” Perkins said.
Perkins added that after-school meal service options are available for the Renaissance City Chargers and other residents, as the application for meal distribution at A.B. Ford Recreation Center is being processed.
”Within 30 days, A.B. Ford will be online; however, if he needs some immediate relief, the Butzel family is the next closest center, and they are starting their meal program on Monday,” Perkins added.
Both the city and the Renaissance City Chargers say they are committed to ensuring that meals are served to children who need them.
Staff with Detroit’s General Services Department said nearly 60,000 meals were distributed to residents over the summer through its Summer Food Service Program.